Fragile Creatures

[Narrator]

The woods smelled comforting to Isolde. Deep evergreen forests always had a nice fragrance to them and were usually mercifully free of people. The trail, such as it was, wound on ahead through woods. It was overgrown in places, though the foliage showed some signs of recent passage, but no actual footprints marred the trail.

[Isolde Schwarz]

Isolde makes her way along the trail barefoot. It's been awhile since she's allowed herself the luxury, but it's a welcome reprieve.

[Narrator]

As she walks, she notices there are no long straight sections, nothing where she can see very far ahead.

"Guardian."

Something moves through the trees out of the corner of her eye. A deer or a rabbit, perhaps? She rounds a bend and the path splits. Standing at the branch, Wanda stands with her arm crossed as she thoughtfully considers both paths. She's dressed in a royal blue and vibrant green gown that drags on the ground, but seems to not be dirty.

"Guardian. Beware."

[Isolde Schwarz]

Isolde approaches the fork in the path, sniffing and casting her eyes about.

"You know I can't choose for you, right?" She says to Wanda.

[Narrator]

"I know," Wanda says without looking at Isolde, "But there's no signs. I don't know which way goes where and they both look the same."

Her nose doesn't actually register any game... or Wanda for that matter. Her nose does register smoke and the smelling of something actively burning. As she regards the paths, they don't look similar. The right path is almost immediately hard and steep, with rises and blockages that she can see. The left path is flatter and, at least here, clearer. But something about it just makes her predator skin crawl.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"...we'll see more on higher ground," Isolde hedges, staring daggers in the direction of the flatter path.

[Narrator]

"Hrm, you have a point," Wanda says. As Isolde turns to look, she loses sight of Wanda for a moment and when she turns back, the other woman is gone.

"Guardian. Be aware."
"Interesting... taking the high road."

[Isolde Schwarz]

Isolde lets out a frustrated growl.

"Come on hunter, keep up," she mutters as she begins to climb the steep path.

[Narrator]

As she begins to climb, vines begin to sprout from the foliage, visibly twisting and growing alongside the path as she moves. The vines themselves are thick and green. Periodically, they bury back in the earth, only to reappear from the earth a few feet later. Eventually the path flattens back out, but her way is blocked by a large boulder that spans the path. The boulder itself has sharp edges and clefts and the jagged pieces are stained a red-brown. There's more movement in the woods, this time hovering above the ground and possibly multiple things, but gone before she gets a better look.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"Not fresh," she reasons. "Not hers."

She looks to see if she can skirt around the boulder.

[Narrator]

As she looks around the boulder, she sees more of the green vines, but now there seems to be another vine winding around them. This one is covered in thorns and is the same color as the stains on the boulder. "Fascinating, isn't it?" says Wanda's voice from the top of the boulder. She's still dressed in the same gown as before and watching the vines.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"It can be fascinating just fine from over there," she grumbles.

[Narrator]

"Hmmm, I suppose," she says, gesturing, her left arm tattooed from the back of her hand to her shoulder with a thorny vine pattern. "Nature sheds blood. Everything fights to survive. It's all about who fights harder." She smiles, "But then, you know that, don't you?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"It can shed my blood if it has to. You? You're coming out of this clean."

[Narrator]

She pulls her knees up, resting her arms and head on them, "You know better. No one who gets into this life comes out clean. Least of all the Children of Earth. We're born to get dirty."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"That doesn't mean you need to seek it out," she frowns.

[Narrator]

"And why shouldn't I? It's going to seek me out anyways. A preemptive strike is preferable, yes?" She smiles and there's something malicious about the smile that's covered up almost immediately.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"If anything comes after you, I'll make it wish it hadn't," she says, a bit of confusion flitting over her features at the sudden malice.

[Narrator]

"Why react though? You could act. Remove threats before they become threats. I'm just... trying to understand."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"Because that never ends," she sighs.

"You go on the offensive, and they come after you all the harder."

[Narrator]

"Hmph, maybe the old wolf has lost her teeth after all," she says before disappearing again.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"That's not what she'd say," she mutters, making her way around the rock and to the path on the far side.

"Whoever thinks they're being clever, you're going to be laughing out of the other side of your face soon."

[Narrator]

"Oh, I don't think I'm being clever," says Wanda's voice again, this time from nowhere in particular. The path on the far side contains more rocks, though none quite so big as the boulder she just skirted. The vines continue to push up the sides of the path, the green vines now beginning to be strangled by the thorny ones. "Why the right-hand path? What does it benefit you with all this pain and hardship? All this struggle?"

[Isolde Schwarz]

"First you say I've gone soft, then you wonder why I didn't take the easy path?"

"You may have her voice, but she's smarter than you are."

[Narrator]

Wanda's voice got sharp. Had she hit a nerve? "I don't consider struggling for no gain to be 'smart'. This path doesn't strengthen anything other than someone's self-righteousness. You scrape and you claw and you bleed, for what? To 'be a better person'? The 'better person' doesn't survive this world. You know that as well as, or maybe even better than I do."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"It's very simple, but it wouldn't surprise me if you still don't get it."

She winds her way through the rocks, still looking about for the source of the voice.

"I can trust pain."

[Narrator]

As she comes around another rock, Wanda appears again, that malicious smile on her face and not even bothering to hide it. "Then perhaps, you should be with what you trust." She holds up her left hand, snapping her fingers and the tattooing almost seems to twist as the path, the forest, and even the rocks burst into immediate roaring flame. She's smelled fires and burning before, but something in this touches something very primal in her. Something old and frightening bubbles to the surface and memories of wood being piled around a pole and cries of 'Witch! Witch!' come unbidden to her mind. "Pain, Isolde, can be instructive," Wanda says, "Just think of me as a teaching assistant."

[Isolde Schwarz]

Isolde's eyes flash golden with animal fear. She turns to one side, then to the other, looking for a way out of the flames that just isn't there.

She grits sharpening teeth and ultimately collapses into a fetal position among the flames.

[Narrator]

The flames begin to close in, wrapping around her as the chants continue to ring from nonexistent people as Wanda curls her fingers into a fist. "I've learned to own what I am, I somehow don't think you can say the same."

[Isolde Schwarz]

Still cringing from the fire, Isolde says something that's muffled by her fetal posture.

"...it's not hot enough."

[Narrator]

"What, old wolf? I can't hear you." The fist clenches tighter and the flames start licking at Isolde.

[Isolde Schwarz]

In a sudden blur of motion, a large black wolf launches through the flames from where Isolde was cowering an eyeblink earlier, barreling towards the false Wanda.

[Narrator]

A surprised 'What?!' is all the false Wanda manages to get out before Isolde makes contact with her, driving her back a bit. She gets her feet back under her and a burst of invisible force separates the two of them.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"I was saying," the wolf snarls, "you'll have to conjure flames hotter than those to show me something I haven't seen..."

She paces around the false Wanda, looking for an opening.

[Narrator]

'Wanda' touches her side, fingers coming away red where Isolde's claws have ripped a gash in the gown. She grins as she smears it across the tattoo. "Seen this?" Thorned vines lash out of the burning woods, whipping at Isolde. 'Wanda' circles, favoring the injured side and seeming only partially there as if concentrating.

As the vines reach for Isolde, a ghostly figure slides in back-to-back with her, slashing at the vines with a gardening blade of some sort. It looks like the woman from the hospital, though her hair is tightly braided and she's wearing clothes that look like they're used to gardening work. "Guardian," she says with a nod.

"You!" 'Wanda' snarls.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"If you think blood sorcery is going to impress me, you are naive."

She is a bit surprised when the vines don't hit home, but she returns the nod gratefully.

"And now that I'm not alone, I suppose it's wishful thinking that you'll stop wearing her face before you skulk off..."

[Narrator]

"Coming to hunt me are you, old wolf?" The area begins to take on a lack of focus common to dreams, losing its sharp realism. "I know several people that are looking forward to that challenge."

[Isolde Schwarz]

"You assumed I'd come to her house alone, and you didn't manage to kill me then."

"Have you considered this isn't a challenge you're prepared for?"

[Narrator]

"I took the 'expertise' of someone who has more enthusiasm than sense. My mistake. I won't make it again." She snaps her fingers and disappears, the attacking vines collapsing into landscaping. The ghostly figure of the Lydia Stanford hovers nearby, looking angry before calming a bit and settling to the ground.

[Isolde Schwarz]

"I wouldn't have expected you to protect me after all this."

"It's probably my fault they went after you and your husband," she sighs.